


One Kiss Away From Killing

by buoyantsaturn



Series: auctober 2019 [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Idek how to describe this tbh, M/M, Supernatural Elements, Vampire Nico di Angelo, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-10-29 01:14:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20788139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: Nico rolled his eyes. Will asked that during every checkup, and at this point Nico knew that he actually meant, Are you fitting in? Are you making friends? “It’s been ten years since I was changed, Will. I think I’m fitting in as well as I’m going to.”





	One Kiss Away From Killing

**Author's Note:**

> hello and happy auctober!! i wont be doing like. every single day like i did last year but i'm gonna do my best to do a lot of them!! so here's this fic i hope you like it!!  
thanks to liz solange-lol for naming it for me!

Nico’s lip was pushed back with the end of a Q-tip, exposing his long, pointed tooth. After a moment, the Q-tip moved to the opposite side of his mouth, showing off the identical tooth there. 

As he pulled the Q-tip away, Will asked, “How’s life in the Midnighter community?”

Nico rolled his eyes. Will asked that during every checkup, and at this point Nico knew that he actually meant,  _ Are you fitting in? Are you making friends? _ “It’s been ten years since I was changed, Will. I think I’m fitting in as well as I’m going to.”

Will huffed, like that wasn’t the answer he wanted. Nico knew it wasn’t. “Involuntary changes can affect you psychologically for the rest of your life. That’s a  _ very _ long time for you.”

“Yeah, and I’ve dealt with it, I’ve learned from my mistakes.” He grinned, intentionally showing off his fangs. “Now I know that there’s a type of creepy old man you  _ can’t _ trust.”

Will pouted, but didn’t otherwise react to the sight of Nico’s fangs - which he appreciated. Will reached out for Nico’s arm and pushed his sleeve up, revealing discolored skin, mottled with burn scars. Will’s touch was light, but Nico’s skin was still sensitive despite the slow healing over the course of the last year. “How’s the sunburn feeling?”

Nico snorted. “Don’t call it  _ sunburn. _ That makes it sound like I forgot to put on sunscreen, not that I was  _ poisoned.” _

“Sun poisoning sounds so extreme,” Will argued. “It only would’ve killed you if you’d been exposed for, like, two more minutes. So, how’s the healing coming?”

Will’s fingers grazed one of the worst scars, and Nico tried to suppress a flinch. He had started to consider Will a friend, and friends didn’t flinch away from friends - at least, that was how Nico felt things should be. Will was one of the only Daylighter friends he had left after being changed, and Nico didn’t want to do anything that might make Will start to think differently about him. 

“Good as it’s going to be,” Nico told him.

“Have you been using the ointment I prescribed?” 

Nico dropped his gaze. “...No.”

Will sighed. They had both already known the answer. “You have to use it if you ever want this scarring to go away,” he said, pushing Nico’s sleeve up further until he found the edge of the burn scars. He met Nico’s eyes before saying, “Doctor’s orders.”

Nico pulled his arm back out of Will’s grasp and shoved his sleeve back down. He looked around the room, anywhere he could that wasn’t at Will. “Is that all?”

Will took a step out of Nico’s space and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “No, there’s one more thing. Your sister invited me out with some of her friends, so she’s probably going to come for you next. You know, just a head’s up.”

“Thanks.” Nico hopped off the exam table and crossed to the door. “I’ll see you around.”

Nico left the clinic, and, with a quick glance at the height of the moon in the sky, gauged how much time he had to get home before the sun rose. He had plenty of time, though he still hurried back; he wasn’t going to let himself get caught in the sun again.

* * *

Nico was woken at dusk by the sound of someone banging on his front door. While vampires didn’t really  _ sleep, _ Nico had never gotten out of the habit of sleeping the day away. So each morning he laid down in his bed - his  _ coffin, _ which had been in the house when he’d moved into Midnighter territory - and essentially zoned out until nightfall. 

Groggily, Nico made his way toward the front of his house, though he stopped just around the corner from the door to shout, “Who is it?” 

“It’s your sister,” Hazel’s voice replied through the door. 

“Come in.” As Nico said the words, he stepped further around the corner, now completely protected from any sun that might’ve bled into the house. He didn’t reveal himself until he heard the door shutting behind Hazel as she entered.

“I wouldn’t have come by while the sun was still up, you know,” Hazel pointed out, crossing her arms and cocking a hip. 

Nico rubbed unconsciously at his burned arm. “Just being cautious.”

Hazel pursed her lips, then relaxed her stance so that she could hug her brother. As she pulled back, she set her hands on Nico’s shoulders. “Okay, so, I know you just woke up, but you should eat something and change your clothes so you can come out with me.”

“Why would I go out to hang out with you when you’re already here?” 

Hazel’s arms crossed once again. “Because we haven’t hung out in  _ so long, _ and Jason and Reyna are going to meet up with us. I  _ know _ you haven’t seen them in forever.”

Nico rolled his eyes overdramatically and groaned out,  _ “Fine, _ I guess I’ll come. But next time we’re staying in and watching a movie or something.”

“Deal. Now go get changed! We’re meeting everyone back in Daylighter territory in an hour.”

Nico flinched at the thought of going into Daylighter territory, knowing that not everyone was as accepting of Midnighters in their territory as his friends were. He tried to take his time getting dressed, but there were only so many variations of dark jeans and black shirts that he could combine before it became redundant. Once he was dressed, he made his way back out of his room, passing by Hazel - who had made herself comfortable on the couch - on his way to the kitchen. 

He grabbed a bag of blood out of the fridge, drinking it cold despite how horrible it tasted when it wasn’t at body-temperature. He tried to drink it fast, knowing how uncomfortable it made Hazel to see him drinking blood. Once he’d finally sucked down the entire bag, he made his way back into the living room to let Hazel know he was ready to go, to which she responded, “Took you long enough. Let’s go!”

Hazel’s car was waiting out front, so she drove them into Daylighter territory. Nico tried not to shrink in on himself as they crossed the territory border - it wasn’t illegal for a Midnighter to cross over into Daylighter territory, or vice versa, but that didn’t mean that Nico wouldn’t get harassed if anybody realized he wasn’t one of them.

They parked across the street from some night club that Nico knew he wouldn’t enjoy just from the look of it. The slow growing feeling of dread Nico felt deep down in his stomach only increased when he noticed not only Jason and Reyna waiting outside for them, but Piper and Thalia as well. He tried to put on a happy face as he greeted everyone, though he stopped bothering after the bouncer gave him a dirty look when he showed his Midnighter ID.

While the rest of the group went straight to the dance floor upon entering the club, Nico went to find a table somewhere that he could sit and watch. He got bored quick, and desperately wanted a drink just to have something to do while he sat around and waited for everyone to tire themselves out, but he didn’t want to expose himself as a vampire to anyone else in that room unless he absolutely had to. 

He was so focused on wishing he had a drink that he didn’t hear someone walk right up behind him until a familiar voice said in his ear, “I told you she would come for you next.”

Nico flinched, and his head snapped toward the sound of Will’s voice - the blond was leaning over his shoulder, pointing a beautiful, bright smile his way. “I, uh, completely forgot you mentioned it, honestly,” Nico replied after a moment of processing.

Will took a seat across from Nico and set his drink down on the table, his eyes scanning the crowd of dancers until recognition showed on his face. He turned back to Nico. “I didn’t realize you had so many Daylighter friends.”

Nico shrugged. “Not that many. They’re just the ones that stuck around after I changed. You’re probably the only Daylighter friend I’ve made since then.”

Will dropped his gaze and took a sip of his drink.

“Hey, how did you get into Midnighter medicine, anyway?” Nico asked. “Most Midnighter doctors are Midnighters.”

Will set his glass back down on the table and started running his index finger through the condensation that dripped from his glass. Nico didn’t think he’d ever seen Will look so uncomfortable, and immediately regretted bringing it up. Eventually, Will shrugged half-heartedly. “I dunno. There’s lots of Daylighter doctors. I figured Midnighters needed another.”

Nico tended not to stay out with his Daylighter friends longer than an hour or two, but something about having Will there made him want to hang around longer. However, the Daylighters of the group, having been awake the entire day and now halfway into the night, soon became exhausted and decided to leave. And, well, Nico and Will weren’t just going to stay there without their friends. 

The group split up outside the club, most of them headed further into Daylighter territory while Will and Nico ventured off toward Midnighter territory. Nico hardly seemed to think anything of the fact that Will was still walking beside him even as they crossed the border, despite knowing that a Daylighter like Will would most likely live in Daylighter territory.

After a few moments of silence passed between them, Nico asked, “Do you live in Midnighter territory?”

Will looked at him like that was the oddest question he could have asked. “Uh, yeah? I’m not going to commute all the way from Daylighter territory.”

“Oh, right! You work here,” Nico remembered. “I, uh, didn’t know Daylighters were allowed to live in Midnighter territory.”

Rather than answering, Will’s attention was drawn to the building they walked past. “Hey, are you hungry?”

Nico glanced at the restaurant, his steps stuttering as Will came to a stop outside the front door. “Um--”

“Oh! Sorry, the restaurants downtown probably have better blood banks, right?” Will rambled. “You would probably rather go somewhere else than at a border restaurant. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

“No, don’t worry about it,” Nico told him. “I just, uh-- Doesn’t it creep you out that I, you know, drink blood? I mean, Hazel and I can’t even have dinner together anymore because she thinks it’s gross.”

Will frowned. “Of course it’s not gross. It’s how you survive.”

“Oh.” Nico hesitated before tossing a thumb over his shoulder. “There’s this place a few blocks from my house that serves breakfast all night.”

“Sounds great,” Will said, a smile slowly blooming where his frown used to be. 

If Nico had a beating heart, he was sure that the look on Will’s face would have caused it to skip a beat or two. 

* * *

They started making a habit of hanging out after that, sometimes meeting up for dinner when Will got off work, sometimes going to each other’s places for movie nights. The first time Nico went to Will’s, Will had opened the door with a, “Hey, Nico! Come on in!”

Nico had replied, “You know the whole ‘inviting vampires inside’ thing is a myth, right?”

“Is it?” Will had asked with a frown. 

Nico shrugged. “I dunno. Everybody’s always invited me in, so I’ve never had the chance to test it.”

Since then, Will had stopped inviting Nico inside, though Nico never had a problem entering his apartment. He figured that his invitation would remain until Will rescinded it. 

Will had ordered a pizza before Nico arrived, and he’d even started stocking bags of blood in his fridge for when Nico came to visit, but Nico still snagged a slice of Will’s pizza before he sat down on the couch. It didn’t benefit him in any way to eat Daylighter food, but he still liked to indulge himself every so often. 

When Nico finished eating, he said, “It must be weird for you to spend all of your time walking about at night instead of during the day, right?”

“Hey, I pull all-nighters just like everybody else,” Will replied, tossing a crumpled up napkin at Nico from across the couch. “Or, uh, all-dayers?”

Nico snorted.  _ “All-dayers?” _

“Shut up, are you going to pick a movie or not? It’s your turn.”

“Fine.” Nico leaned against Will’s side to grab the remote, and stayed there while he flipped through Netflix. Eventually, he picked some cheesy horror movie and settled back against the couch, sitting much closer to Will than he needed to be. 

About twenty minutes into the old, inaccurate, Daylighter monster movie, Will asked, “Don’t these old vamp movies bother you? I mean, they’re  _ so _ inaccurate!”

Nico shrugged. “They’re kinda funny, don’t you think?”

Will pouted as he watched the evil vampire caricature on screen put a woman under a trance so that he could drink her blood. Will cringed at the sight. “It’s one thing if they’re using  _ facts, _ but vampires can’t even put people under trances! It’s just baseless fear mongering!”

Nico snorted. “Oh, you think we  _ can’t _ put people under trances?” He raised a hand and placed it on Will’s cheek, turning his head to meet his eyes. “Look into my eyes, Will. Look very,  _ very _ closely…” Will started to lean in toward him until they were practically nose-to-nose, and Nico flicked Will in the forehead.

“Ow!” Will flinched back and rubbed at his forehead. “You tricked me!” He grinned as Nico started laughing and continued, “You  _ evil vampire!” _ He pinched Nico’s side, causing him to squeal in laughter as he fell back against the couch cushions. Will leaned over him, pressing himself close. “You’ll  _ never _ get my blood!”

Nico pushed at Will’s chest like he wanted him to move away, but his fingers twisted in the front of Will’s shirt and ended up just pulling him closer. Before Will knew it, he was tipping down and pressing his lips to Nico’s.

This time, Nico did push him back, his dark brown eyes huge with fear as he scrambled to get out from underneath Will. “I-- I gotta go--” Nico stuttered, rolling off the couch and darting toward the door.

“No, wait! Nico, I’m sorry!” Will called after him, though Nico didn’t even slow down. Will jumped to his feet and ran to the still-open door, his eyes scanning the area for any sign of Nico, then noticing the subtle lightness of the sky. “It’s sunrise,” Will whispered, dread sinking into his limbs, knowing that the chances of Nico making it home before the sun rose were slim to none. He’d already endured so much sun exposure - any more could kill him in seconds.

Will ran as fast as he could, screaming Nico’s name until he was sure his throat would be raw soon enough. 

He found Nico standing in the middle of the street, only about a quarter of the way back to his own home. He was frozen in place, staring up at the trees where the sun would soon break over the horizon. 

“Nico!” Will called, but Nico didn’t even flinch. Will hurried forward, his heart pounding in his chest even harder as he was momentarily blinded by the rising sun. He couldn’t outrun the sun, of course, and soon he watched as the light landed on Nico and Nico’s knees buckled.

Will caught him just before he hit the ground. He scooped him up in his arms and turned back the way they’d come, keeping his eyes up and on his destination instead of looking where he wanted: down at the fragile vampire in his arms, who was no doubt steadily turning to dust. 

Will burst back through his front door, slamming it behind himself and dropping to his knees with Nico on his lap. He finally allowed himself to look down. Nico’s skin was red and wrinkled anywhere the sun had touched him, and he wasn’t moving a single muscle - Will couldn’t immediately tell whether he was dead or undead, not without breathing lungs or a beating heart. 

“Nico, can you hear me?” Will asked, bringing one hand up to Nico’s cheek, though the top layer of skin flaked away under his touch. “Nico,  _ please!” _

Will pried Nico’s mouth open and pricked the tip of his finger on one of Nico’s teeth, allowing a few drops of blood to drip into Nico’s mouth. Nico coughed weakly, and Will’s heart restarted. He lifted Nico up until he was sitting rather than laying in Will’s lap, and guided Nico’s mouth toward his neck. 

“Drink up, Nico, please,” Will whispered, running his fingers through the hair at the back of Nico’s neck until he felt the sharp pricks of Nico’s fangs breaking his skin. Will winced at the sudden pain, and quickly got used to the feeling. “That’s it, drink as much as you need. Fresh blood is the best medicine for any vampire, after all.”

Just as Will felt himself growing light-headed, he pulled Nico off of him, and Will keeled over as he lost consciousness. 

* * *

Nico woke up. He hadn’t  _ woken up _ since he was human, unless he counted waking up in the Midnighter clinic after his bout of sun poisoning. But this wasn’t a Midnighter clinic. This was a bedroom, but it wasn’t his own. He had never been in this room before. 

He tried to sit up, but as soon as he moved, his limbs caught fire - no, not literally. It felt like sun poisoning, only a thousand times worse. He fought through the pain until he managed to sit up against the headboard. Nico looked down at himself, noticing that he’d been stripped down to his underwear, and his bright red skin was coated in some kind of cream. 

The room around him brightened as sunlight poured in from the window, shining over the floor and across the sheets, hitting Nico’s legs.

He screamed. He didn’t feel any pain, which only made him scream louder. 

The door burst open across the room, and Will ran inside, dropping onto the bed at Nico’s side and forcing a bag of blood to Nico’s lips. 

“You’re okay, Nico,” he told him reassuringly. “Just drink up, you’ll be better soon.”

Despite the pain of moving, Nico shoved the bag of blood away. “Will, what’s going on?” He felt like his heart was pounding in his chest, but there was no way that was happening - he wasn’t  _ alive! _ “What’s happening to me? I’m… I’m all burned up! But I’m sitting in the sun! Something’s  _ wrong, _ Will!”

“I can explain,” Will told him, his voice matching the panic in Nico’s. “You were out in the sun, so I brought you back here, and-- I think you were almost gone, Nico, so I fed you my blood to make sure you wouldn’t...you know!”

“Your blood did this to me?” Nico asked. “But...how is that possible? You’re just a Daylighter!  _ What’s happening to me?” _

“Nico, please just listen to me for a second,” Will begged, placing his hands to Nico’s cheeks to hold his attention. “I’m...not a Daylighter.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!!  
check out solangeloweek on tumblr for more auctober stuff!!


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